Day 60: Recreational Field (Third Shift)

[razing_phoenix]

It was definitely a good thing that Tear had tracked him down, seeing how she'd had a wealth of interesting information for him. Granted, a lot of it he could have guessed himself, especially the details about Landel's capabilities, but it was always good to have it confirmed by a trustworthy source

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[ninelivesonce]

"Taura." She held out her right hand, which had fared better than her left in avoiding the patchwork of tiny bandages. "It reminds me of where I grew up, too, but I think you like yours better than I, mine." She wrinkled up her nose, which made her lip sting more than she'd expected it to, but she ignored it. "If I never go back there, it will be too soon."

She'd managed to avoid it so far; the Admiral knew how she felt, and there wasn't anyone in the Dendarii who enjoyed Jackson's Whole. Or if there was, they'd be turned out as soon as they'd mentioned it. Gambling and sex-for-hire could be gotten a lot of places, most of which had some sort of rules in place. Jackson's Whole was good for one thing, and one thing alone, in Taura's mind. And that was concentrating all of the bad eggs in the universe into one cesspool so that the rest of humanity could step around it.

They also sold weapons, as casually as they sold people, but the price was always too high.

"Most of the battles I've fought have been in space. Which, I guess, is a kind of weather." Hit an airlock with a projectile and you had a lot of weather, for a very short time. But it was rather predictable.

[kingofknights]

Space? How did one battle in such an environment? Even in Shirou's time, man had not yet learned how swiftly traverse the stars. But then people from all times and worlds had been ripped our of their lives and brought here, hadn't they? Still, provided they remained in contact, Saber found herself interested to hear stories of space warfare from Taura. For the moment, she chose not to pursue it, instead reaching out to firmly shake the other woman's hand.

"It is an honor," she answered. Her eyes drifted to Taura's other hand. She didn't seem in the best condition. "You were on the battlefield last night?"

[ninelivesonce]

"If by battlefield you mean this entire place, yeah. Hell of a fight." Some of which had been against her own companions, but that hadn't been her fault. Whatever that thing was, it had taken over her body completely for a few terrifying minutes. She was just glad Rita and Goku had been quick on the uptake.

It had meant a complete distraction from tracking the soldiers, which had probably been the goal all along. Just because it hit too close to some personal nightmares, didn't mean it had been chosen for them. "Are you a soldier?"

[kingofknights]

A shame Saber hadn't awoken early enough to make a difference in the battle. At full strength, she was certain to have at least made a sizable dent in their jailers' defenses. Now, uncertain as to whether or not she would truly have access to her powers as a Servant, she wasn't certain how much of an impact her efforts would have, though of course simply not trying wasn't an option.

Taura's next question caught her a bit off guard. She found herself unsure of how to answer it truthfully, given the complicated nature of her time as a Servant and her reign as the king of Britain. The faraway look that clouded her eyes was almost impossible to mask.

"I was. I am no stranger to war," Saber replied simply, choosing not to speak of her time as a king. The answer was true enough whether applied to her life as a king and her existence as a Servant in the war for the Grail.

[ninelivesonce]

"Oh, good," she said. She would have smiled, but her lips were still burning from a dozen little (and not-so-little) cuts. At least it had been better than what would have happened if she'd actually bitten Rita.

"There's a lot of people here who don't know the first thing about fighting. This isn't the place for them." People liked to hate mercenaries, but when they did the fighting, they knew what they were getting into. Taura had had less of a choice; she could have done something else with her life, but she'd been designed as a soldier, and she'd spent her adult life proving that she was one. They'd been discarded as failures; Taura had proven them wrong, and did so again with every new day.

Even when she didn't have the body in question. Hah. That showed them, didn't it? That soldier wasn't something you could be born, but something you could become.